


Step Up

by GalaxyRise489



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Disabled Character, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Erik is the best boyfriend, M/M, Massages, but not magically like in dofp, not really hurt/comfort, soft erik, who I make not disabled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 17:45:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20456915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyRise489/pseuds/GalaxyRise489
Summary: Hank has a new and improved cure for Charles’s paralysis. Erik has lots of emotions about the whole process, and doesn’t know what constitutes a massage. Also he accidentally makes it sound like he has plans for world domination.Set in 2002 but following Dark Phoenix.





	Step Up

“They shouldn’t be hurting this much” Charles mumbled into the chest he was using as a pillow. Erik’s chest. He wasn’t trying to complain, but every inch of his body from his waist to his feet was on fire. 

Erik sighed, “he told you it was going to hurt. You haven’t used your legs since the 60’s, not counting your ill-advised adventure in 73, obviously every little movement is going to be painful.” It was 2002, 40 years since… Erik hated calling it the accident, despite the fact that Charles always referred to it as such. Since he diverted a bullet meant for him directly into Charles’s spine. 

* * *

_ It was only through the wonders of modern medicine, scratch that, the wonders of Hank McCoy, that Charles had the chance to learn to walk again. The first day that he woke up to toes curling against his calf, Erik broke down. He cried for what felt like an hour, while Charles held him and combed fingers through his hair. His biggest regret, the one thing he would change, take back, make not happen, was being reversed. They were still young enough, maybe they could still live the life they should have been living for the past 40 years. No war, no arch-enemies, no Magneto and Professor X, just Erik and Charles. The following morning Charles had no movement and no feeling again, and Erik cried harder. What if it hadn’t worked.  _

_ Slowly the number of days with feeling and movement began to outnumber the ones without, until Charles had a complete week with feeling. It was only then that Erik truly allowed himself to be filled with hope.  _

* * *

What would the world say if they could see the supposedly fearsome Magneto like this, curled around another man, barely holding himself together. They would mock him no doubt. He didn’t care. The fact that Charles was hurting hurt him. He wiped away a stray tear, hoping Charles hadn’t noticed. 

They had been living in the mansion for almost two months, since the day Hank showed up, unannounced, in Genosha and said he thought he could heal Charles. Erik was hesitant, justifiably so in his humble opinion, given what Hank’s last “cure” had done to Charles, but Charles was eager to try. It had not been an easy process, unlike the last cure, this one was not just a serum redirecting Charles’s powers (and suppressing them). It was an entire procedure to merge cells with a regenerative property directly with both ends of Charles’s fractured spine. Then, Hank said, the bones and nerves would naturally re-connect and regenerate. The first month was just monitoring, making sure that Charles didn’t have any unwanted side effects, it wasn’t until the second month that the “regeneration” started to happen, and the real pain set in for Charles. 

Every day Erik woke thinking maybe today would be the day Charles felt strong enough to take his first steps. Up to this point, Hank was assisting them with exercises that didn’t require Charles to move from the bed. 

“I can feel your thoughts trying to push into my brain, my friend. Do you care to share them, before they expose you?”

“I was just thinking we need to make up for lost time.” Erik half lied “40 years is a long time. Would you like a massage? It might make you feel better.” 

Charles nodded, neatly ignoring Erik’s lie, and moved to sit up. Erik pushed the other man’s sleep pants up, exposing thin bony legs. He pressed a gentle kiss to the inside of Charles’s left knee. 

“That’s not a massage, Erik” Charles chided, “Oh!” He exclaimed as the other man turned his attention to the atrophied calf muscle. “Erik! I still can scarcely believe I feel that. I know it’s been a month, but-“ 

“Charles” Erik cut him off, propping himself up on his elbows in between Charles’s outstretched legs, “you are allowed to be in awe of the feeling for every day as long as you live. I can’t believe it either. When I wake and feel your legs move against mine…” he looked away, feeling his eyes welling with tears and trying desperately not to cry (again) “I know it doesn’t erase what I did then, on the beach” he paused to keep his voice from cracking “and all the things after that, but I feel like maybe we can move forward now.”

“You know that we moved forward decades ago, Erik. Oh God! That feels incredible.” Erik had begun to run the tips of his fingers up and down from knee to ankle. “I want to try standing today, Erik. Do you think Hank will let me?” 

The words were barely out of Charles’s mouth before Erik was off the bed and down the hall. “BEAST! Where are you?” 

“Erik, his name is Hank, and you know this” Charles’s voice rang clearly in his head. 

Erik tore through the mansion until he located Beast… Hank in the kitchen. “Charles wants to stand up, but I thought you should probably be there, since you are the medical one, in case anything happens, or there are issues, or-“ 

Hank was annoyed, he wanted to eat breakfast, not be dragged into a physical therapy session by Magneto who, by the way, looked very much like he just rolled out of bed. Probably with Charles, which was not something he wanted to think about. “Fine.” 

Standing did not go as well for Charles as he had hoped. This cure was not as instant as the serum that Hank had provided him in the 70’s, and that had only been 10 years after the accident. 30 years ago. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that standing hurt, and that he felt weak. But it did. He hadn’t planned on going through all this pain. Erik was there, supporting his arms, letting Charles sink into him, but also holding back when the other man learned forward, and finally letting go with a sob as Charles stood on his own, unsteady but standing unassisted for the first time in decades. 

Erik didn’t even try to hold back the tears as he watched Charles shift back and forth and bend slightly at the knees and hips. 

“Charles, that’s enough for today, you’re projecting your discomfort” Hank said with a wince, trying to guide the older man back to sit on the bed. When Charles resisted, still trying to stand through the obvious pain, Hank shot a pleading glance at Erik. 

“Sit with me, old friend.” Erik said, offering his hand to Charles. “There are many more days in which we can stand together.” 

Charles accepted the outstretched hand and sat cautiously on the bed, grimacing as his legs and backside made contact. 

“Only you could make physical therapy sound like a plan for world domination” Hank threw over his shoulder as he left the two men to sit. 


End file.
